La Legion and the Moors have cut the road and occupied the
hills outside of the town of Villa Grande. The Republicans need to shift them before something worse happens.
Neither side can really see all of the others forces. The hills hide the Francoist second line
while the Republicans are obscured by the buildings of the town.
The Moors decide to extend their line to secure a flank. A
panzer moves up between the hills.
The
Republicans push a gun forward and fire a round at the Moors on the hill-it
misses. They’ve also advanced a little
too far.
The Francoist gun has a clear line of sight on the
Republican gun and fires and misses twice.
The Legion’s anti-tank gun redeploys. Two Republican tanks
have been spotted.
A Republican T26 shoots out of the town at fast speed. Rapidly followed by 3 sections of infantry.
The last section to move is up against the Moors who are
supported by a Pak 37mm. The lads don’t
fancy their chances. They scuttle back
to the town and take up firing positions in a building.
The Legion moves up two sections to support the front line
of Moors.
Another T26 shoots out of the town and a BT5 too. The BT5 has two sections of infantry in
support. (First run through the card deck)
Another Republican unit isn’t happy. It heads for the trees and opens up on the Moors.
2nd Section Moors on the hill are taking casualties from rifle
fire, 3 down. Not all the Government
troops are reluctant. The first section supporting the BT5 rushes forward to
take up position in the woods opposite the Moors.
The Moors Mortar gets busy and finds its range on the T26
to no avail. Another T26 breasts the
hill and spots the Panzer. It takes a
shot at the Panzer’s side and immobilises it.
There is a plane overhead, whose is it? One of Franco’s flyers as it turns out. The pilot machine guns a section of
Republican infantry before dropping two bombs on a T26. One bomb falls wide the other does minimal
damage. The infantry takes 3 hits. It’s too much for them and they head for
cover.
The Francoist 75mm shot at a T26 and miss. Followed by the
anti-tank gun which doesn’t. One T26 out
of the game.
The Republican 75mm fires at the anti- tank gun and
destroys it. It’s artillery mayhem. The Moors, battered and now without artillery
support hang on. It gets worse. The reluctant Republicans feeling safer in the woods
are shooting hell out of them.
Section 2
of the Moors fall back behind the hill line. Section 1 puts two bursts of light
machine gun fire and two volleys of rifle fire and pins the Republicans.
La Legion can do nothing in the face of the T26, they get
out of the way at a run. The Panzer is
stuck fast without a target. It’s down
to the 75mm gun now.
On the Republican side most of the infantry won’t advance
but they will shoot. Their two remaining
tanks can dominate the battle.
The Republican BT5 emerges from between the woods and takes
out the Moors Medium Mortar with a single shot.
It’s all over for the Moors and La legion and they withdraw at speed. (Second
run through the Card Deck).
Not bad I think, and it could have easily been
different. Tanks are a handful even for
good troops. But, not invulnerable.
Three tanks are a nightmare. That said I wanted to try them out with the differing artillery types in this game.
The Francoists lost the Panzer and 10 of the Moors as well
as a mortar and a Pak 37mm. La Legion didn’t
get to fire a shot.
The Republicans lost a T26 and 8 soldados.
BTW, it would be remiss of me not to show you the
refurbished Dangerous Wandering Bull. I’ve
Christened him Minos.
The Event Card and Event Table seem to be working well
without unbalancing the game. In the game it produced two reluctant units and an
enthusiastic one, and an air strike. The
other two events were for troop types not on the table and could be ignored.
I'm now ready to do the second draft of Arriba é Non Passaran. More SCW soon. Next its back to the American Civil War for a refurbishment progress report.
